The Latest Watches & Wonders 2025 Releases Coming To James Porter & Son

Well, it's that time of year again. Somehow, those of us on the ground survived another year of Watches & Wonders. Speaking with friends and colleagues in Geneva, this year's edition of the show felt majorly busy, and the numbers back up this feeling. 

Six new exhibitors joined the roster (including Bvlgari), bringing the total to 60; more than 55,000 people attended (up 12% in 2024), and 21% more tickets were sold for the public days, very positive news for the premier watch show. In terms of the watches themselves, well, there is a lot to talk about, with Rolex making headlines, brands celebrating anniversaries across the board, the presence of colour in the industry evolving, and a positively rapid acknowledgement of reduced sizes. The same can be said for those brands you and I enjoy regularly here at James Porter & Son, so let's see what 2025 in watches has for us.

Alpina

Alpina continues its recent vintage focus with the introduction of the Heritage Tropic-Proof Handwinding, and this time, they've held nothing back. During Geneva Watch Days in the summer of 2024, Alpina brought the Heritage Automatic models to life, re-imagining classic early to mid-20th-century designs that were absolute hits. But here's the thing, they scaled the cases up to 38mm, meaning while the designs were wonderful, they started to shift away from the crucial essence of their original appeal. Now powered by a hand-wound movement in 34mm, the Heritage Tropic-Proof is the answer to our historically accurate dreams. Time only with a central seconds hand, black and white dial, the Tropic Proof is exactly what a Heritage collection should look like. The original Tropic Proof cases were produced by legendary the casemaker for the likes of Patek Philippe, Longines, and many others, François Borgel, and these new cases echo instantly recognisable design cues from these cases perfectly. The Tropic Proof is priced at 1,795 CHF.

Czapek

As one of the leading independent watchmakers today, Czapek has truly cemented itself on the landscape, not least since the introduction of the Antarctique in 2020. At the time, the watch was one of the first moves from an independent towards adoption of the integrated bracelet sports wave, and five years later, the brand continues to evolve with the introduction of the Antarctique Tourbillon. Featuring not just a new in-house calibre, a first for the brand, but also a new dial. The Calibre 9 is a flying tourbillon regulator, and the gear train and the tourbillon design are vertically integrated and visible on the dial side of the watch, with the mainspring at the top. Even better is that this is an automatic tourbillon, with the 5N gold oscillating rotor engraved to match the dial pattern. Czapek partnered with Metalem to produce these lovely 'Singularité' guilloche dials, a famed manufacturer who has worked with Chopard and, notably, Philippe Dufour over the years. The watch is available in three colours, the original monochrome grey 'Secret Alloy' - a 50-piece limited edition - and the Glacier Blue and Photon Sphere.

This model comes at a special time for the brand, as it celebrates the 180th anniversary of its founding back in 1845, as well as 10 years since the revival of the brand, so expect to see a lot more from Czapek this year.

Doxa

Doxa played the hits this Watches & Wonders by bringing back a classic model to the lineup in a new size that's guaranteed to get the Doxa community, and wider sports watch one, very excited. It's called the 250T GM,T and this new model sits at 40mm in the classic cushion-shaped case but comes with a GMT complication. This is a release I've covered in detail here (https://www.james-porter.co.uk/journal/introducing-the-doxa-sub-250t-gmt), so be sure to head over to the story for a more in-depth look.

Fears

Similar to Doxa, Fears recently announced a watch that is so in tune with what the market is asking for right now, as the Arnos debuts an entirely new shaped collection. Building upon the Archival 1930 from 2021, the Arnos Pewter Blue brings an automatic calibre to a rectangular watch within a permanent collection. Head over to our in-depth hands-on coverage, including live photos, here: https://www.james-porter.co.uk/journal/introducing-the-fears-arnos-pewter-blue.

Frederique Constant

One of the most refreshing meetings every year at Watches & Wonders is with Frederique Constant, mainly because they always find new ways to surprise me with value-driven novelties; this year, though, they might have outdone themselves.

Picking up from their recent focus on their Manufacture line, Frederique Constant has just announced an in-house Swiss perpetual calendar measuring 40mm in size for – wait for it – less than £10,000. Featuring a salmon dial with the now quintessential FC dart markers and Alpha hands, it's difficult to be anything but impressed by Frederique Constant at the moment. Don't get me wrong, £10,000 is still a lot of money, but for a new automatic Swiss perpetual calendar? That's tough to beat.

Grand Seiko

Grand Seiko held nothing back this year with four significant releases across the board. I won't waste any more time, so let's jump in.

Firstly, the Tentagraph. This made waves in 2023 as the brand's first mechanical chronograph, but now it's back with a new dial in a panda execution with a black ceramic bezel. This release, while still noteworthy, is a more standard take on the Tentagraph, while the next one, the SLGC009, goes extreme. Known as the 'Tokyo Lion Tentagraph', this release is made with a Brilliant Hard Titanium treatment, giving a brighter look and additional resistance, and in this super faceted case, it allows light to play with it uniquely. 

Next up, Grand Seiko decided to come along and focus on the essence of watchmaking: refinement and evolution. The new SLGB001 and SLGB003 are both powered by Spring Drive movement achieving ±20 seconds per year, remarkably impressive and incredibly wearable.

Finally, the SBGW323 Kiri is the latest mechanical Grand Seiko to join the collection that measures a beautifully elegant 36.5mm in width. Combining the Mt. Iwate pattern with a purple inspired by the kiri flower, the result is a lovely fusion of 44GS angles with a soft tonal dial delivering a true unisex piece.

Maurice Lacroix

Perhaps one of the most authentic consumer-focused brands out there today, Maurice Lacroix announced the 1975 in three different iterations to celebrate the brand's 50th anniversary. Typically, what we see when brands celebrate milestones are massively complicated, limited, and lavish releases made to highlight the upper limits of their abilities. While I do appreciate this, I also like it when brands do the opposite and give consumers simply fantastic, daily wear-ready options: take the new 1975 collection. Available in either 40mm, 36mm, or 39mm with automatic or quartz movements, these are simply instant classics. Three-handers with dates in the full range of sizes in classic silver, blue, and black dials, this is a tried, tested, and extremely proven formula. Starting at £750 for the quartz models and rising to £1,300 for the 40mm automatic, Maurice Lacroix has just made the entry-level watch market even more competitive. 

NOMOS Glashütte

After releasing 30 colourful editions of the Tangente at last year's show, NOMOS followed this up with not just another colourful approach, but also a technical one with a brand new take on the worldtimer complication, the Club Sport Worldtimer. This really is the best of both worlds for me, as I have a soft spot for both NOMOS and worldtimers, but this release gets even better when diving into the details. A silver dial and a dark blue dial join as permanent collection models, but NOMOS also debut six colourful limited editions of 175 of each colour. A sub-second at six is paired with a 24-hour dial at three, as well as the cities around the periphery of the dial, which is advanced via the pusher at 2. Amazingly, these models come in at 9.9mm thick for a retail price of £3,940.

NORQAIN

A newer addition to the James Porter & Son lineup, Norqain doubled down on the runaway success of their ultra-light Wild One with a new smaller model in 39mm. Music to many collectors' ears, this new smaller take comes with four exciting new colours as well: Hyper Pink, Sky Blue, Purple Ice Blue, and Mint. Aside from Mint being limited to just 400 pieces, the rest of the collection is unlimited and might now be my favourite Norqain in the lineup. Priced at £4,650, the Calibre N08S is fully skeletonised, which beautifully fuses the sporty DNA with an exposed mechanical view. And as these models are ultra-light and seriously robust, the Wild One is arguably one of the truest modern executions of a sports watch today. 

Oris

Oris has gone through somewhat of a transformation this Watches & Wonders, including a slight change to their logo font, an establishing of brand colours in the form of a forest like green and a pastel pink hue (said to emulate the colour of their HQ building in Hölstein), and for the Pointer Date, a major elevation across the board. As Oris have done so well recently, the manufacturer released two types of Pointer Dates, some using the in-house Calibre 403, and others using the 754 Sellita-based movements. The former comes in with both a minty pastel green dial option and a terracotta, with the 403 calibre boasting 5 days of autonomy and a price point starting from £3,200. The latter keeps the price at £1,700 while utilising a Sellita-based calibre and introduces yellow, turquoise blue or lilac dial options. However, both new models also introduce a new bracelet design for the Pointer Date, an H link design that modernises the collection in line with the new dials.

The Pointer Date has always been the leading collection for Oris, despite the Aquis and Pro Pilot X enjoying a lot more of the limelight as of late, and these new additions reflect its positioning perfectly.

Photography by @TimVaux